


Subletting on Avenue West

by Ymir14



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Ferrets, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-04
Updated: 2016-05-07
Packaged: 2018-06-06 06:48:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6743821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ymir14/pseuds/Ymir14
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Is it apartment hunting, or destiny? A story of renting, ranting, romance, redemption, and running from the gay thoughts.</p><p>Or, the adventures of a very nice business intern, a Walgreens cashier who narrowly escaped a desk job, an Uber driver, a very not-nice business intern, and a three bedroom apartment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Finn - I

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! May the Fourth be with you! (I actually meant to publish this back in January but the project had to be put on hold for my schoolwork. I hope you enjoy it. Big thanks to my beta reader and brainstorm partner AcousticAntidote. Go check her out!
> 
> The chapters will be revolving viewpoint. Can you guess who's appearing when? Tags will be updated as required, comments, questions and criticism are all welcomed in the comments section!

Finn wasn’t exactly sure how he managed to get himself into this mess.

Well, actually, he was exactly sure how they both got into this whole mess of a situation. That was mostly his fault. Rey was probably a better roommate then he deserved, even if they were both currently rooming in a Super 8 motel which was suspicious and if he had a blacklight he’d probably never sleep again. Ever.

Actually he might not even be able to sleep or wake up again after all that black mould in their old building. Which is why they were evicted without notice. Right. Not ideal.

Yet, Finn actually might take some deadly spores over fearing all of the miscellaneous bodily fluids soaked into his mattress that maybe definitely included semen. How often did this motel replace the mattress? Yearly? He read somewhere they replace the bedding at these kinds of places every 6 months, but did that include the bed itself? The bed frame? The mattress, core of the bed? Actually, he didn’t want to think about the bedding either. Finn was torn between looking up the statistics or living in ignorance.

Ignorance is bliss.

Searching for an apartment on short notice wasn’t bliss. 

Staying in a cheap motel in the city centre was negative bliss.

“Stop mumbling about how many people have screwed on your bed.” Rey says, dumping a couple more metallic objects into her pile on the corner, and Finn realized he was probably talking out loud. Thinking out loud and watching those trains of thought fall into an abyss.

The newfound silence is punctuated by the sounds of metal clacking and clinking and he looks over to see Rey’s small pile of reflective or once-reflective things start to tip over and Rey just straightens the tower methodically. Finn know’s she’s nearly got a suitcase full of door hinges and tire rims and strange looking mechanical parts by this point.

Or, maybe? She doesn't let him touch them, and Finn wonders if it's from concern for tetanus or out of sheer possessiveness. 

When a tire rim starts to roll away, Rey slowly follows it around the tiny room, and Finn looks away. Sort of. He looks down. To the bedsheets, where someone definitely had been before and may or may not have done stuff on and how could Rey walk so calmly when they were effectively homeless and stuck in a dubiously clean motel?

Finn’s sighs, lies back on the bed, and tries really hard not to think about what was there before him. Who was there. Doing _things._

“Rey. People have done the do on this bed.” Finn says solemnly, standing up to lean against the wall, accidentally nudging a repetitive looking wall hanging with his head. It only reminded him what kinda place this was, and sort of stabbed him in the ear with that cheap wooden frame.

There was some kinda muffled shouting, and Finn isn't eavesdropping on purpose but-

Whoever was in the room beside them tonight didn't seem to be having a good stay. Or a good relationship with one another. He could faintly hear the consonants of what were definitely expletives resonating through the walls. Maybe he should stop listening to th-

There's a loud thump, and it makes Finn jump. He’s trying to focus, to look forwards, and all he can see is that Rey somehow managed to jam the tire rim between the wall and the nightstand.

Finn hopes this situation won't be his situation forever. For another week? Everyone had long figured out leases and subletting and Rey was a student and oh god, what if this was the rest of his life? What if that’s what the people next door were fighting about? Regretful decisions made in the folly of their youth when the housing market turned sour? He, they were so scr-

A grunting sound interrupts his thought process again as Rey tries to wrestle the tire rim out of the crevice she accidentally kicked it into. The audible struggle between Rey and physics was just hardly able to drown out the sound of those people arguing in the next room. Finn isn't sure which is more concerning; the potential wrath-filled future by his ear, or Rey’s potential to rip out that tire rim and send it flying towards his face. Or the fact neither of them might find a place to live in the future; and Rey might have to sell off her scrap again to buy them some more nights in this shitty motel and-

She finally wrenched the tire rim free with a kinda frightening squeal that definitely sounded like it just lost them their security deposit. Finn groans. There’s an equal sort of screeching from the other side of the wall.

Rey triumphantly replies, tire rim in hand. “It’s a double room, Finn. A single room would be worse.”

There was the sound of something breaking, or falling hard in the other room when the yelling stopped abruptly. Finn knew it really wouldn't be good for anything but was kinda invested in their lives now. He should get help. Or not. What if they were having sex? He wouldn't want to interrupt them. What if someone was hurt? Oh god, what if he just witnessed a murder? Does it count as witnessed if he only _heard_ someone getting killed?

“Worse how?” Finn mumbles out, attention lost, face blank, head turned so he could press his ear against the wall and suddenly there’s the wibbling-wobbling sound of laminated paper and a print out shoved under his face emblazoned with a staring, smiling man, clearly reading ‘ROOMIE WANTED.’

Finn doesn't scream.

Finn screams a little.

Those handsome eyes and ferret-holding hands only contributed to the horror he’d just heard; blending into one terrifying image involving ferrets and breaking glass and maybe he should calm down because really they were probably just having sex. Probably. And there were no ferrets or charming smiles, just the couple. Yeah.

“It’s a housing flier.” Rey says, excited and matter-of-fact and completely ignoring his momentary distress, shaking the paper at him until he tentatively grabbed it from her.

“This was on your nightstand, Finn. Found a prospect?” Rey continues, hope in her voice and Finn’s surprise subsides just enough for him to look again. A handsome guy holding a ferret staring up at him through the paper she was holding up to show him. She probably saw it while fighting for her beloved tire rim, and Finn suddenly remembers where he’d seen it before. (Apart from on his nightstand.)

But, he wasn't paying attention, probably, even if he’s the one who found the flier. It occurs to Finn that the man on the paper is posing like the Fonze, tousled hair and leather jacket. He didn’t really look at the flier when he took it from work, he’d only seen the word ‘roomie’ and the address, knowing that it was remarkably close to Rey’s internship.

“Yeah, I forgot. You should apply, Rey.” Finn says, and Rey takes back the paper to look at it, holding it really close to her face, and really far, as if there was something she was missing. There was an email, a name, a brief description, a price, and an address. No phone number. That’s all Finn remembers.

But, he can kinda see Rey’s eyebrows knit up from behind the paper.

“You found it, Finn. You're the one who should apply.” She says sternly, and that was the voice she used whenever Finn tried to do something for her. Rey was allergic to charity, even if it was just helping her fold her laundry. Especially if it was helping with laundry. 

Finn wasn’t sure how to reply, and Rey lowers the paper so they can lock eyes, and Finn just knows this wasn’t going to be over until someone had the other in a metaphorical (or maybe literal Rey was really physical) headlock.

“It's close to where you work.” Rey starts, and Finn could see the tension in the set of her jaw, and remembers how last time Rey really almost kicked him for trying to help her clean the lint out of the dryer. She did it all with a tense sort of smile.

“Closer to your internship.” Finn counters, and Rey steps forwards, thrusts the paper at him and Finn flinches, not completely sure where she’s going with this but completely unwilling to further it. He could always find another place to stay, Rey didn’t have the stable income to back up any claims.

“You found it.” She hisses, just like a rattlesnake or feral cat and Finn sort of wants to run away.

He settles for putting his hands up, trying to gesture he’s standing down. He’s never really been in this kind of argument, all the arguments in his old office were had over paper jams and passive-aggressive sticky notes and _oh geeze why was Rey stepping closer?_  “It's not really all that close to Walgreens.”

“Nonsense! It's close to _everything_.” Rey replies, and she’s starting to smile, and it’s not a happy smile. It’s a creepy smile. Finn was starting to get a little more scared. No, it’s all for show. Just, stand your ground.

Finn plants his feet. “You need an actual place to live!” 

“So do you.” Rey says, and she’s stepping closer, and that standing thing totally didn’t work and now Finn is stepping back every time she steps forwards and Finn’s just scrambling for rationale.

“I mean to do work and stuff in, since I don't take anything home with me...” He says, rubbing his neck with his hand and Rey was not backing off and Finn sort of misses just filing misconduct forms against each other with HR until one person was pulled out of work. 

“You still need a place to live, last time I checked.” She continues, trailing off his thought and they were standing uncomfortably close and Finn’s sure he could feel her eyes boring into his. He didn’t have much more room to back up to. 

“Rey, I insist.” Finn pleads, leaning back to slide into a sitting position, pulling away from the wall so he could look up, watch his response. 

“I insist back.” Rey says, and Finn raises an eyebrow.

That was a mistake.

There’s suddenly a foot planted on his chest, forcing him down onto the floor, Rey’s full weight pinning him down and Finn can’t end this aggressive counter-argument or starting contest and he knows Rey won’t actually hurt him but this argument is reaching a fever pitch and he’s running out of ideas to make sure Rey actually does something for herself for once. “I’m allergic to ferrets.”

Rey lets up slightly, rolls her eyes, and they both breathe in, and breathe out. They were taking a moment before resuming what they were doing before. Rey knocks the breath out of him. 

“You are _not_ allergic to ferrets, Finn.” Rey threatens in a hushed voice, vibrant and towering. Her eyes were wider and more insistent and oh holy shit screw the people next door they could be banging or dying but Finn is 100% sure that if he doesn’t agree he will be murdered. Murdered by his best friend who fears for his wellbeing enough to put the fear of god into him. 

“Okay, let's both apply, and then whoever gets it gets it!” Finn offers, wincing when Rey pulls back, and Rey sighs; leans back against the tiny closet in the doorway.

“Fine.” She says, running her fingers through her hair, pulling it out of her multi-tiered style so she could put it back up.

“Alright.” Finn squeaks, and maybe his voice really did jump three octaves for that to happen, and oh god. They were doing this. He’s just sitting up now, back against the wall. If all things went well, they were really going to split up, and one of them was going to be moving in with Mr. Ferret.

...Is that a white stain on the carpet? He can’t do this for much longer. Finn jolts to his feet, hardly manages to make it to the bathroom so he can rinse his face and most of his head and scrub his hands and he doesn't feel clean yet. He’s never going to be clean again. At least Rey could escape this filthy mess and-

Oh. Oh no. He would end up in a single room.


	2. Poe - II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mini chapter. Poe meets his not-too mini roommate prospects.

It’s 2pm on a Saturday and the most beautiful man Poe Dameron has ever seen walks into his life (If he read that email right and this was, indeed, a beautiful man and not a beautiful person of a different gender walking into his life). Or more accurately, they were walking into his apartment; his _shared_ apartment with the douche king.

Also there’s a really amazing other person too who looks like she could kick his ass and that’s really great but everything fell second to this enrapturing, transfixing moment. Including his manners. _Shit._

“Hey, I’m great to meet you!” Poe stumbles out, and you know what, he tried. He tried so hard and the other one (Rey, was it?) gives him a cutting look. He’s trying to gesture to her sort of a shoulder shrug but not using his shoulders and instead using his eyes but Poe isn’t completely sure it she gets what he's trying to do. She sticks out her hand as if to re-direct the conversation.

“I’m Rey, you must be Poe!” She urges, and Poe chuckles nervously, tries to shake her hand with any certainty. Though, he was pretty certain she was trying to crush his hand. He was also certain she was succeeding.

Poe resists the urge to shake out his pulverized hand before offering it to Mr. Beautiful, both thankful and regretful that he didn’t ask them to include pictures because he’s going to remember this moment for a long time. Thank God he cleaned the place before they got here since that would’ve been embarrassing. Wait, did they know he had a ferret? Which 'roommate wanted' poster did they see? Poe could only hope it was the serious one, and not the one where he was holding BB8 and wearing shades; or that they'd let him live it down if they did see that one.

Right, 'they'. Two people. One bedroom free to rent, two possible people to rent it. He’d think about that later, after this moment he’s supposed to remember for a long time.

“Finn, right?”

“Yeah.” The other man (Finn) shakes his hand, and Poe’s trying to not focus too much about how his hand feels because that would be a little bit creepy. Sadly, he does end up focusing a little bit too much on his voice.

“I’m Poe Dameron. What are you doing later?” He’s rubbing the back of his neck, and he thinks he’s blushing and- wait, what did he just say?

“...Later?” Finn says shakily and _oh no he’s cute._

“I meant for a living, you mentioned you had a job?” Poe continued, hoping that was a good save. It probably wasn’t.

“Oh! I work at the Walgreens on Park.” Tall, dark, and handsome replies.

“I’m an Uber driver, myself.” He says, remembering a little too late that 1, no one had asked what he did for a living and 2, he was here to try and find a third roommate so he and his current roommate could stop covering the rent for the third room. Smooth, Poe. Smooth.

Okay, maybe it was just his roommate covering the extra rent, but that’s what Poe was here to fix. And also hopefully his roommate would follow instructions and stay in his room until after the contract went through, though maybe he should've asked a friend to keep BB8 in their room instead of his roommate? He wasn't negligent, per say, just... inattentive. Ferrets weren't always the easiest to keep track of, either, and Poe had a hard enough time fixing up all the ferret tubing in time for apartment viewings without having to fix all the things from that roommate's occasional fits. Like, he trusted him to take care of BB8 for like four hours, but right now, looking at Finn and Rey, he'd rather not have a deal-breaking scream fest erupt from behind that closed door.

“So, how many bathrooms does this apartment have?” Rey says, cutting back into the conversation and cutting back into Poe's thoughts and cutting off the eye contact they were having. Back on topic.

“Just the one, it’s pretty decently sized. It’s by my room, the other two rooms are by each other. One shower, one sink, one toilet.” Poe responds, and Rey’s all business, and Poe already sort of likes her. Rey still seems doubtful of him in general as a concept.

“Pretty standard, then?” Rey asks, taking off her shoes and properly entering the doorway.

“Yeah, unless you wanna count my other roommate’s hair products. He’d probably clean them up if you bothered him.” Poe says, backing up. He actually gets to get a look at them both for the first time, they’re pretty tall; pretty fit.

“Sorry, forgot to ask. What’s your day job?” Poe continues, fully believing her night job was probably some kind of enforcer or boxer. She could pick him up and throw him, actually, she could probably pick up Finn and throw him too.

“I’m an intern. The finance firm down the street.” Rey answers sharply, and a little bit aggressively, and maybe Poe should back off. 

“I’ll just give you a tour.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will Poe's gay-ass thoughts follow him through interview processes? Who gets the lease? Find out later! (Yeah, sorry, I know this chapter is a bit of a cop-out. I meant for it to be longer but due to some extenuating circumstances I'd rather this gets published now so I can take my time on the next one, life creeps up on us all.)


End file.
